<p>Sorry - just so I don’t have to dig. Looking at UDel - cost mid/hi-30’s OOS. Not sure of exact EFC - but assume mid/hi 20’s.</p>
<p>When second child attends school, and EFC is split between the two (would be in first child’s last two years of UDel), how much is the actual CoA likely to decrease at UDel? $5000? $10,000? </p>
<p>And in that time, how much is CoA likely to increase? $3 or 4000 with rising tuition?</p>
<p>Thanks for info/educated guesses/experience.</p>
<p>The pocket book.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC has little to do with what a school, particularly an OOS public, will expect you to pay.</p>
<p>EFC means LITTLE to schools because all it mostly does is see if you qualify for fed grants (EFC below about 6000)</p>
<p>Your child’s $25k+ FAFSA EFC would split to about 13k … but that will mean NOTHING to UDel…they will NOT give you more aid.</p>
<p>EFC is a federal number for federal aid. IT IS NOT a number that forces schools to give you money (that they do not have). an OOS public charges high rates for a reason…they expect you to pay it because you dont pay taxes there. why would they bother to charge high OOS rates if they were just going to cover it with need-based aid???</p>
<p>the fed govt cannot force schools to provide aid, because most schools do NOT have the money.</p>
<p>fed aid (free money) is not much and is for low incomes. </p>
<p>It seems like you were hoping that when you have two in college and the EFC splits that UDel is going to give money…no they wont. </p>
<p>even with ONE child in college and an EFC of about 25k+ at an OOS public that costs about 40k…expect to pay nearly all the costs except a 5500 student loan unless the student is lucky to get a merit scholarship that would reduce the cost. </p>
<p>The cost of attendance is not going to decrease. With tuition increases at 3 to 5 % annually, you can bank on the COA increasing each year. </p>
<p>Financial aid is based on the following</p>
<p>Cost of Attendance - EFC = Demonstrated need</p>
<p>In your situation, it is most likely a moot point .You may still end up being a full freight payer because;</p>
<p>UDel is a school that does not meet 100% demonstrated need</p>
<p>The goal of a public university is to provide a financially feasible option for ** their in-state/tax payer base**
If your EFC is well over $5k, the only thing that you are guaranteed in terms of financial aid from filling out the FAFSA is a direct loan $5500 freshman year. Low income students would be eligible for Pell, (FWS, Perkins loans, SEOG if it is availble at that school, but not guaranteed).</p>
<p>In your case if you have the following
COA = 30k, EFC = 20k, you will have 10k of demonstrated need. </p>
<p>Unless you get some kind of big merit scholarship from UDel, granted they may toss you a token amount of aid, to discount the price, however as an OOS the only thing that you can bank on is a $5500 loan. You would end up paying the bulk of the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Thanks - not particularly what I wanted to hear, but appreciated. Essentially, if child 2 attends a private school, it might help her - but otherwise a moot point. </p>
<p>Cheers. </p>
<p>It will only affect child number two if that child’s private school guarantees to meet full .</p>
<p>Most privates dont give a lot of aid either. </p>
<p>Run the NPCs on the schools websites and put 2 in college and see what you get. the unknown is how the first school will react when suddenly there are 2 in college. Child 1 is already a student so little incentive to give a great pkg. Unless the schools promise to meet need, all bets are off.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the schools that give the best aid use css profile to determine need and they’ll look at home equity, retirement accts, etc. and if there is a non-custodial parents, they will likely look at that household’s income and assets as well.</p>
<p>It looks like you’re looking for child 2. Put in 2 kids in the NPC to determine. Also put in 1 child to determine what the aid will be once older child graduates (also reduce household size by one person as well). </p>
<p>One of the best ways to deal with this is to either attend a full-need school that has a generous formula or attend a school that will give huge merit no matter how many kids are in school. </p>
<p>The parental portion of the FAFSA EFC is split pretty much in half , yes, when you have two in college at the same time. But bear in mind that there isn’t a school out there that guarantees to meet need as defined by the FAFSA EFC. Those schools that guarantee to meet full need define that need themselves.</p>
<p>Sybbie has given you an excellent rundown on how it most often works with schools like UDel. State schools that do not guarantee to meet need based on FAFA EFC. Whether UD will increase aid at all in future years when another student goes to college is questionable. I suggest you field that question to a financial aid officer. At such schools, the answer is usually that they certainly are not going to double the package, and whether they will increase it all is questionable. </p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is usually the minimum you can expect to pay before getting federal aid. Doesn’t mean that is what you will be paying.</p>
<p>ASK UDel. They may be reluctant to tell you exactly, but they may be willing to give you a rough estimate. Also see if their NPC is accurate for this year, and if so, try it again changing your data to say 2 in school and see what happens. Good luck figuring it out!</p>
<p>the below is the udel NPC for an incoming frosh with sibling in college with an ACT 31 and a 4.0 gpa, top ten percent of class and an efc of thirteen thousand split efc</p>
<p>the only free money is what appears to be a modest scholarship. even with an efc of 14k, the family is still paying twice the efc…essentially what its efc would be for one child.</p>
<p>Estimates for the 2013-2014 Academic Year</p>
<p>University Charges:
Tuition & Fees + $29,932
Room & Board + $11,500
Cost Paid Directly to University of Delaware $41,432
Estimated Personal Expenses
Books & Supplies + $800
Other Expenses + $1,500
Total Estimated Personal Expenses $2,300
Total Cost of Attendance $43,732</p>
<p>Your estimated grants and scholarships:
Institutional Scholarship Awards
Total College Grants - $10,900</p>
<p>University of Delaware scholarships and merit-based awards are renewable for three additional years (four years total) if a student meets all renewal requirements.
Your Estimated Net Price
$32,832</p>
<p>Your estimated eligibility for other aid programs:
Loans
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan - $3,500
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan - $2,000
Federal Parent PLUS Loan - $27,332
<p>Anyone who is looking at having two kids in college at the same time in the future should directly ask the finanical aid director via Email what they do in such cases when the parental EFC is pretty much cut in half. The same with parents who are getting packaged with two in college but expect the older child to be out and will have one left in college in time. Schools have their own ways of calculating those changes. THe NPC can kinda tell you what your package, on average would be, RIGHT NOW It is not even a bit of any estimator for future changes in financial situation because frankly even schools that guarantee to meet full need on the onset, may have their definitions on that for future changes in situation. (a big drawback in letting schools define their own need and then giving stats on how they are meeting it)</p>
<p>I never thoght of UD as much of a generous school, but the hard stats show that there are merit awards that they give that put them in a pretty strong spot for that kind of money. THat I 've never seen, heard or read of anyone getting any big piece of that means nothing. Nor does it mean anything unless you get a piece of that action. </p>
<p>The merit award was based on ACT, GPA and rank. I dont know what the OP’s D’s stats are.</p>
<p>and since Cpt and others have said that UDel isnt reliable for merit, I don’t think anyone can count on that award with those stats.</p>
<p>and either way, the OP was hoping to pay a reduced amount with two in school, but the net cost is about the amount of their EFC for ONE in college…even though TWO kids was put in the calculation.</p>
<p>Most people will concur that there’s really no ‘two-for-one’. The EFC will split but unless one of the two colleges guarantees to meet need it might not mean anything. I have had 2 overlap years with kids in colleges that do not guarantee to meet need and did not see any decrease in costs, even when the EFC decreased below COA (because of the split). The colleges just figure you’ll tough it out or borrow for those killer years i suspect. </p>
<p>Sorry - OP here. I was just trying to paint a financial picture for the kid before making a financial decision.</p>
<p>The upshot of the situation (I’ve posted before) - is that he can essentially go to Binghamton debt free (or with minimal debt - sub 10K anyway - if he decides to do something like semester/year abroad), or UNH (our instate) with money in the pocket. Anyhoo - the third option that entered into the picture was Delaware - which he’d rejected out of hand on his first campus visit, but just revisited this past weekend and decided it was a much more attractive option in light of his other two choices (if only Binghamton didn’t have such drab surroundings!).</p>
<p>I was just trying to figure if tuition at Del was likely to decrease at all (apparently - no!), before painting the numbers picture. No - the likelihood is that it’s going to increase 4-5% year over year.</p>
<p>The ultimate upshot is that he’ll be out for the full federal loans, will no doubt have to forgo “year abroad” and other experiences he may have had at Bing, and we’ll probably be 10K or so in debt (and would have to contribute more out-of-pocket throughout his 4 years).</p>
<p>He and younger sister (of two years behind) - both have a fairly good start on college (at least - enough to pay for 2-3 years at a school with a 35K-45K actual CoA). </p>
<p>As far as stats, he was a 75% kid at the public schools he applied to (2030 SAT, decent 3.5 UW in college prep/AP track). Merit was given at three of the OOS publics (9K at Bing - amazingly generous, and 7500 at Del, and 1K at UNH - although that’s more than affordable). UConn (a double legacy) did not offer any aid. He applied to all regular decision. </p>
<p>The only other admittance was GW - with 15K merit - but was certainly priced out of the ball park. </p>
<p>My suspicion is that his kid sister will maintain the grades, but won’t test as well as he will. I think we will be a lot more judicious in selecting schools that are known for merit as well as some “out of the hat” picks, which my son’s basically were. </p>
<p>There has been a lot of helpful information and posters on CC. Unfortunately - like many people - I think I came to this site after all his hats were in the ring… But I’m hopefully gleaning a lot for the next time around!</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>The PB</p>
<p>OP, we just went through this exercise. We have two daughters, 3 years apart. We make about $85/year. Hub is 57 and I am 54.</p>
<p>D1 is a junior at an in-state public U. Her HS scores and grades met the criteria for our state’s Hope Scholarship ($4K/year). D1’s goal since high school is to be a nurse practitioner focused on public health. Strategy: 1 year at local CC to get grades competitive for nursing school apps and then 3 years at a state U for a BSN degree. The CC year was free with $2K returned to D1. Grades and pre-nursing test score got her into a competitive nursing program. I estimate our out of pocket cost by graduation at $10K beyond her 529 and Hope Scholarship for all 4 years. Next steps: work for a year or two, she will likely do Peace Corp or something similar, and then apply for an MSN/MPH degree. </p>
<p>D2 has 31 ACT and 1460 CR/M SAT plus 4.2-ish GPA and may be headed to med school or other STEM field but she is undeclared. She applied last fall to multiple southern liberal arts colleges, our flagship U, UA, and UNC-Wilmington. Accepted to all but Davidson (WL). </p>
<p>D2 financial aid results: paperwork screw-up by our HS guidance office with UA resulted in her not getting the 4-year tuition scholarship or I think she would have down selected to the UA Honors College (accepted) .
against a couple LACs. </p>
<p>This month we received all the financial aid packages: Rhodes, Wofford, UT-Knoxville, Maryville College, Berry, and Birmingham-Southern, and UNCW. She received $15K-20+K merit at the LACs, $6K UTK merit and $3K UNCW merit. Need based grants varied from $0 to $10.6K. </p>
<p>Here’s the financial kicker and it reflects what you’ve read above - once her sister is out of college, the EFC doubles. In the meantime, D2 down-selects to Wofford and Maryville. Wofford’s aid included a $10.6K grant and a $23K merit scholarship. I got on the phone with WC financial aid and yes, her $10.6K grant would go down by about $8K starting her sophomore year.</p>
<p>Here is OUR (not meant to force fit to anyone else’s) decision process, meaning D2 was fully involved in the number crunching/discussion: Maryville College! The MC aid is not need based so it will not fluctuate based on our income or whether D1 is in college or not. MC is in-state so the Hope applies and due to her scores, it’s $5K/year. Maryville offered $24K merit. The merit scholarship schedule is published on its website. We know several grads from MC and it has a stellar reputation. They get kids into med school, PT, PA as well as other grad schools. Plus they have 3-2s for nursing, engineering, and a 3-4 for pharmacy.</p>
<p>Wofford was the second least expensive school and a true gem but I kid you not, the 4-year out-of-pocket difference from MC was $31K. D2 took about a minute to decide and then texted her gaggle of girlfriends and her sister that she’s headed to MC. I paid the deposit 15 minutes later.</p>
<p>Result: Both Ds get a quality education that fits THEIR individual needs and yes, wants. Mom and Dad stay within the financial guardrails we set for our family. </p>